Chasing the Runaway Bride

by Susan Meier

  Oh, that wasn’t good. Having her sit at the desk wasn’t good. Having her reading files wasn’t good.

  No wonder she’d wanted to work separate shifts.

  Trying to look nonchalant, he ambled to the desk. “What are you doing?”

  Without turning, she said, “I found something really interesting.”

  His heart stumbled. If she’d found his grandfather’s proof, with one flick of a finger on a keyboard she could delete it. He put his hands on her shoulders to turn her to him, away from the screen, away from the keyboard.

  When her wide eyes met his, he casually said, “What’s interesting?”

  Though she swallowed hard, she calmly said, “Your grandfather took a very healthy salary.”

  His heart shimmied back to beating again. “Is that all?”

  “Well, it just proves that the grocery store made more money than—”

  “Than you and your gossipy mother believed?”

  “My mom wasn’t gossipy.”

  “How else could she turn half the town against my grandfather?”

  She held up her hands. “Okay. Stop. This is an unwinnable argument because each of us supports a different side, and there’s nothing for either one of us to pull out and prove we’re right.”

  He licked his lips. There was proof. Obviously she hadn’t found it, so he had to. He stepped away from the desk and removed his Stetson. When he faced her, he caught her staring.

  “What? Should I put the hat back on?”

  She sighed. “You’re fine without it.”

  He laughed. “Then why were you staring?”

  “I wasn’t staring.”

  “You were.”

  Though her face turned scarlet, she said, “Yeah. Right. Whatever. I want you on the sales floor again.”

  His good humor fled. He wanted to find that damned proof. “I was on the floor yesterday. It’s your turn.”

  “Nope. I spent two days on the floor before we split the shifts. And I also spent my alone shifts shelving. You owe me some time.”

  He cast a longing look at the computer screen, but knew that unless he wanted to tell her what he was looking for and give her a chance to find it first, and maybe destroy it, he couldn’t argue.

  So he turned and left the office. This time when he walked out of the stockroom, he didn’t just have four boxes of salad dressing and pasta to be shelved; he had the cart and the box cutter. He’d also put on one of the white grocer’s aprons. Because he’d gone home very dusty the day before.

  He put up four jars of salad dressing before he heard a tittering from behind. He turned and saw Sharon Baker and her sister, Natalie James.

  He said, “Ladies,” and would have touched the rim of his Stetson, but he wasn’t wearing it. So he ran his hand along the top of the short stubble of dark hair on his head. It should have felt weird for a Marine-turned-rancher to be stocking shelves. But it didn’t. Oddly, it felt right. Probably because of those summers he’d worked with his granddad.

  Sharon said, “Hey, Cade.”

  He smiled. Sharon and her sister had to be in their sixties. He knew Sharon was Ashley Lashinsky’s mom and Ashley was married and had three kids. Her mom was no spring chicken.

  Before he could say anything, Sharon and Natalie grinned and walked away. Cade shook his head. This town was weird.

  A few minutes later, Brooke Cooper, Isabelle Cooper’s mom, smiled at him as she took two bottles of ranch dressing from the shelf beside him.

  What seemed like seconds after that, Alice Lenosky ambled over for the mayonnaise. “Good morning.”

  His suspicions mounting, Cade said, “I thought you hated O’Riley’s now, and specifically didn’t want to shop anywhere I had a part of things.”

  She laughed. “Really, Cade? You took my rant seriously? I was just trying to get out of that fight with my dignity. Besides, I don’t drive. Where else am I going to get my groceries?”

  Because what she said made sense, he didn’t question her. It also felt good to see people shopping in the store after the two-day lull. As much as he wasn’t a fan of the O’Rileys, he didn’t want to see his grandfather’s store fail. But if it was going to succeed, and if this morning’s rush of little old ladies was an indicator, it was, then he had to find that proof.

  He shrugged off the apron, returned the cart to the stockroom, and headed for the office. As he walked inside, Piper spun to face him guiltily. Cade narrowed his eyes, but reminded himself not to overreact and clue her in that there was something important stored somewhere on that hard drive.

  “What did you find this time?”

  She sighed and turned on the seat to face the computer again. “I’m not looking for things. At least not anything in particular. I’m just trying to figure out how the store works.”

  “Well, good. Then you won’t mind if I take a shift in here and you go out on the floor.”

  She laughed. “Can’t take the little old ladies flirting anymore?”

  He frowned, glanced at the door, then back at Piper. “That was flirting?”

  “They’re not as young as they used to be. They’ve probably forgotten their best techniques.”

  He chuckled. “So I’m turning into a draw for the place.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  “But you also don’t mind having customers.”

  “I’d be lying if I said I did, and the old ladies do seem to like you.”

  The light dawned for Cade and he gaped at her. “Is that why you put me out there?”

  She clutched her chest. “No! I had no idea senior citizens would find you irresistible.”

  He stepped closer. “Oh, come on. You all but salivate every time I’m within two feet. You knew putting me out there would cause a stir.”

  Her eyes widened even further. “I swear to God, I didn’t.”

  “I feel used.” He stepped closer. “Violated.”

  Piper scrambled up from the desk chair so she could skitter away. “All right. You’re right. It is time for me to take a turn on the sales floor.”

  She left the office, and Cade fell to the desk chair with a maniacal laugh. God, that was easy. She was easy.

  He frowned. Actually, she wasn’t easy. By now he would have bedded a woman he wanted this badly, yet she’d managed to keep herself several feet away from him.

  She was smart. Crafty. And getting the better of him far more than he was getting the better of her.

  And if he was stuck here for the time it would take to get his dad to sign the financial agreement, that had to change.

  Cade spent an hour in the office, looking for that damned unfindable proof, but in the end the only thing he’d figured out was that he didn’t know enough about Piper. That’s why she kept getting the better of him. He didn’t have leverage.

  Somehow she knew he wanted to be in the office—maybe because he’d set camp there the first day he arrived and never came out. But he didn’t have any idea what she wanted beyond reclaiming the store for her family. But everybody knew that. Even knowing she was the runaway bride didn’t give him leverage. Everybody knew that, too.

  He needed intel, and he’d worn out Devon as a source. If he asked any more questions, Devon would suspect something was up. He didn’t want that. He wanted Devon focused on getting their mom divorced. He would handle Piper, even if that meant getting a little sneaky to gather the information he needed.

  He did his shift and then stayed for hers, smirking when she sighed in exasperation that he was working with her.

  He leaned back in the office chair, getting comfy. “What do you think? That you can work my shift to make sure I take my turn on the sales floor, but I can’t work yours?”

  “I always take my turn on the sales floor.”

  “Good. Then you shouldn’t have any problem with me being in the office.”

  She turned and huffed to the door, closing it behind her.

  He shook his head. The woman was crazy.

&nbs
p; At the end of the night, he helped her lock the money from the registers in the safe and followed her out to the parking lot. He tipped his Stetson before getting into his truck and watched as she rolled her eyes as she slid into her car. A little red, fuel-economy vehicle that wouldn’t be too difficult to follow even from a distance.

  He let her go two blocks before he shifted into gear and crept out of the lot. He easily made out her taillights and turned in her direction.

  It didn’t take long for them to get to the “older” part of town. What surprised him was her pulling into old Buzz Hanwell’s driveway. Why the hell would she visit Buzz Hanwell at eight o’clock at night?

  He cut his headlights to get closer, then stopped a few parking spaces back, watching as she got out of her car. Instead of going up the porch steps to the Hanwell residence, she strode to the garage and up a set of stairs on the side.

  She lived on top of a garage?

  He frowned. And it wasn’t even a nice garage. It was an ugly garage. Cinder blocks on the bottom with old white siding covering the upstairs. A light came on and through the window he saw a kitchen. He winced. This was where she lived.

  He drew in a breath then blew it out noisily. Well, hell. This didn’t feel right at all. He and his family were sitting on a snow-capped mountain of cash and she was living in a crappy apartment above a garage?

  He sat back, watching as she walked to her refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water, knowing he was going back to Finn and Ellie’s where he didn’t just have a stainless steel refrigerator to raid, he had plush sofas.

  Damn it.

  He started the truck. He’d hoped for something he could use against her. And all he saw was that she was struggling.

  Maybe planning two weddings she didn’t go through with took a toll on a budget?

  He pulled out and headed to Finn and Ellie’s, telling himself not to even think about the fact that everybody believed he was the cause of her wedding bell blues.

  He hadn’t been here for any of her weddings.

  And he’d had a damned good reason for leaving Lonnie at the altar.

  So maybe the thing to do would be go back to keeping a low profile? Satisfy himself with the time he had in the office to hunt for his grandfather’s proof and leave her the hell alone.

  If he could.

  So far he hadn’t been very good at that. The woman was just too much fun to tease.

  …

  Sunday morning when Piper stepped into the store, she looked around to make sure Cade wasn’t there yet. It was his shift, but his truck wasn’t out front. Still, she wouldn’t put it past him to hide it so he could surprise her. Satisfied he wasn’t anywhere in the store, she headed for the back and the coolers.

  Today, she’d dressed in well-worn jeans, a sloppy T-shirt, and her black-frame glasses, which persistently slid down her nose. She’d tried being pushy with Cade, making him go on the sales floor to do his share of the shelving—not sit in the cushy office—and it was working.

  He was incredibly unhappy.

  Phase two? Make him work even harder. Make the store look like a place of employment. Not fun times. And certainly not flirty times.

  She took all the milk out of the first section of the cooler and squeezed it into the section beside it. Then she filled a bucket with hot water, found a sponge, and left both in front of the cooler.

  She scurried to the front of the store just as the automatic door swished open. She turned with a smile and, as she expected, Cade strode inside. His steps faltered when his gaze locked on hers, but she kept her smile in place. She had to make him believe today’s job was real and necessary.

  She strolled over, her ponytail swinging, her too-big glasses sliding down her nose. Good. The better to peer over the frames at him and intimidate him. Or at least look like such a taskmaster that he ran for the hills.

  “Good morning.”

  “Good morning. I thought it just turned August, not October.”

  “October?”

  “Aren’t you dressed for Halloween?”

  “Very funny. I am not dressed for Halloween.”

  “Tapping into my secret librarian fantasy then?”

  “Oh, ha, ha. You are just full of jokes today.”

  “I’m a funny, funny guy.” He walked over to her. “But there’s nothing funny about a man’s secret librarian fantasy. We take that shit seriously.”

  Before she could answer, Jen Forsythe walked in. “Good morning.” She paused. “Piper? Where are your contacts?”

  “Cade and I are going to be doing some dirty work today, so I thought glasses made more sense.”

  Cade caught her arm and spun her to face him. “Dirty work? On a Sunday?”

  “According to the schedules I found in your grandfather’s office, the coolers are to be cleaned a few times a year. There’s no mark on the chart in his office saying they were done even once this year.”

  “Maybe he just forgot to mark them.”

  “And maybe we don’t want to be cited by the board of health. Because it’s Sunday we know for sure an inspector won’t be in today. Which means tomorrow, when he could come in, we’d be ready for him.”

  She glanced at his T-shirt and jeans. “I’d tell you that you could go home if you want to change clothes, except I know those are your typical work clothes. I’m guessing this is the stuff you punch cows in.”

  “No one says punch cows anymore.”

  “Pity. I always liked that phrase.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s my turn to work in the office today.”

  “Afraid to get your hands dirty?”

  He gave her a patient look. “I work with cattle. On a ranch. There isn’t a job in this place that comes close to that kind of dirt.”

  “I’ll bet you wear gloves though.”

  His eyes narrowed. He cautiously said, “I do.”

  She smiled. “Good.” Pulling a pair of yellow rubber gloves from the back pocket of her jeans, she added, “Then you should fit right in.”

  Chapter Nine

  Cade turned to see Jen watching them. He could argue, tell Piper she was crazy if she thought he’d be washing the insides of coolers, except he didn’t want word getting out that he and Piper were fighting. The tide of public opinion appeared to be turning in his favor. People seemed to be seeing him as a normal guy, most likely guessing he had a good reason to leave Lonnie at the altar. If he was getting the benefit of the doubt, it would be a shame to lose that over wiping down a cooler. Especially when making himself look like a team player might bolster his image even more.

  He took the gloves and grinned at Piper. “Sure, darlin’.” He deliberately used the endearment if only to watch her face turn scarlet. “Never let it be said I don’t pull my weight.”

  Her shoulders squared. “Good. Excellent. Let’s go.”

  She turned and led him to the coolers in the back. He followed, watching the sway of her hips in her worn jeans, figuring if he had to scrub, he should at least take that small pleasure.

  When they reached the coolers, he frowned. “How’d we end up with the first section being empty?”

  “I came in early. Shoved some things into the next section down. This way, we clean a section, then move everything to the section that’s done and wash the one we emptied. We keep doing that until we get to the last section.”

  She smiled and handed him a sponge before she pointed at a bucket of water. “Have at it.”

  “Where’s your bucket?”

  She displayed a roll of paper towels. “I’m drying.”

  “Ah. So this dirty work of which you speak is actually all mine?”

  “You did say you had experience with dirt on the ranch.”

  “I also butchered cattle. Next week are you going to put me in the meat department?”

  She considered that. “Maybe.”

  Bending to put his sponge in the water, he said, “We are equals. You are not the boss. I’m only helping you this morning becau
se I saw how Jen was looking at me.”

  A thundercloud raced through her green eyes before she said, “Enjoying the rush of popularity?”

  “Apparently more than you enjoy being jealous over it.”

  She sputtered, “I—I’m not jealous.”

  He slid the sponge over the racks and along the inside walls, as he’d done when he was a kid. It was interesting how grocery store tasks kept coming back to him as he completed them. Still, that didn’t make them any more fun—but teasing Piper did.

  “Oh, come on. You’re hot for me.”

  “I am not hot for you.”

  But the righteous indignation that rattled through her voice couldn’t cover the little quiver that also seeped in.

  He laughed. “Come on. You all but admitted it the day we talked about our meeting in the drugstore.”

  She said nothing.

  “Denial is a terrible thing. Not only is lying to yourself wrong, but you’re potentially missing out on something great.”

  He finished the section and stepped back so she could use the paper towels to dry it. “I see someone has an inflated opinion of himself.”

  “Oh, sweet cheeks, there’s nothing inflated about me except the one thing you’d want inflated. And, trust me, it does not disappoint.”

  Her face flushed to the point that it almost turned purple.

  His face scrunched in confusion. “Why do you always get so embarrassed? I can see you getting mad. But embarrassed? That doesn’t make sense.”

  Shifting to the next section, Piper opened the door and began removing goods and shelving them in the clean section.

  When she said nothing, he said, “I get it. You’re one of those girls who doesn’t like to talk dirty.”

  “Shut up!”

  “Or you do like to talk dirty and me taunting you brings back memories.”

  Ignoring him, she took another armload of goods out of section two and put them into section one.

  “That’s it, isn’t it? Devon told me you’ve been engaged twice. You probably know all the tricks.”

  She still said nothing. Section two empty, she simply pointed at the bucket. He bent, filled the sponge with water, and applied it to the section he was supposed to clean.